The following relates generally to wireless communication, and more specifically to adapting to delay spread variation in wireless communication systems.
Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, (e.g., a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system). A wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE).
Some wireless communication systems may operate in millimeter wave spectrum. Millimeter wave communication may be sensitive to channel conditions such as frequency selectivity due to multipath propagation. Some wireless systems using millimeter wave communication may use analog beamforming to improve signal quality and reduce path loss. Some beamforming configurations may impact a typical channel delay spread for millimeter wave communication systems. Beamforming may use either a narrow transmit beam or broad transmit beam based on the channel conditions. For example, a broad transmit beam may improve channel quality by using multiple reflected paths. However, using the broad transmit beam may use additional multipath and increase the delay spread when compared to a narrow beam.